Sir, I beg you, for God’s sake confess something, whether it be true or not. Invent something, for you cannot endure the torture which you will be put to; and even if you bear it all, yet you will not escape, not even if you were an Earl, but one torture will follow after another until you say you are a witch.

These are the words of an executioner to Johannes Junius, the mayor of Bamberg, Germany, in 1628, after enduring some torture without confessing, who was subsequently burned at the stake after deciding to confess. [Source: The Witchcraft Sourcebook, p. 201.]